


Warrior Planet

by starkteasfic



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Magic, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9508778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkteasfic/pseuds/starkteasfic
Summary: Natasha knows that the sun will rise every day. That's why she doesn't let it fall when a planet disappears.[Remix of "Nightmares and Daydreams of You" by dapperanachronism]





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Nightmares and Daydreams of You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9385781) by [dapperanachronism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapperanachronism/pseuds/dapperanachronism). 



“Do you think he'll wake up?”

The question was nothing more than a whisper, and if she hadn't been close enough, Natasha might have passed it off as a sigh. But she was practically cradling him in her lap, hands brushing through dark hair as Tony came down from a panic attack, and she would have had to been deaf to not have heard him.

She hummed, not wanting to answer. To be quite honest, she wasn't 100 percent sure. Steve had taken a hard hit from their villain-of-the-week’s mysterious ray gun, and had almost instantly collapsed. Tony had been the first to reach him, armor opening to allow him to check over the fallen man. That had been the moment Natasha knew it to be serious, as Tony never took the armor off while still on the battlefield unless necessary.

Unfortunately, she had to answer, knowing that if she didn't, Tony's mind would send him spiraling right back into panic.

“Antoshka,” she started, voice gentle. She felt him shudder in response, and felt immediately like a cur. But she continued. “I refuse to lie to you. I don't know if he'll wake up. But I do know that you won't give up on finding a way to do just that no matter what I say. And that means while he's asleep, it's my job to make sure you're taken care of. So instead of worrying right now, you need to sleep.” She shook her head at him noise of protest. “No. Bed. He'll still be here tomorrow.”

Tony took a moment to find his voice, eyes glassy and unseeing, before nodding in defeat. “Can I stay with you tonight? I don't think I'll sleep without someone there to make sure I do.”

Natasha ran her hand through his hair once more. “Of course, kotenok. It has been a while since anyone except Clint has slept beside me, so I hope you don't kick. It took me forever to train that habit out of Clint.”

* * *

 

Perhaps she shouldn't have jinxed them.

“What do you mean you don't know where he went? He was on the helicarrrier, and it was in the air. Unless he suddenly sprouted wings and went out the window, you should know where he is!”

Natasha placed a hand on Tony's shoulder, silently telling him to calm down. It would do no one any good to have a hysterical Avenger causing stress at this time.

“Mr. Stark, we understand your concern. But based on the security footage, he seemed to wake at 3:29am and escape into the hall. But no cameras have him exiting into the hall at that time. Doctor Banner believes that magic was involved, causing the door to be a portal to another place.”

Tony's face darkened the longer the nurse spoke, and before he could do something drastic (like strangle the nurse in his frustration), Natasha stepped in.

“Have you checked all other security cameras? Had a team scout the carrier?”

“Of course, Agent Romanov. We even had Agent Barton going around through the vents, even after Agent Coulson had it banned. But there isn't a trace of Captain Rogers on board anywhere but his room.”

Natasha nodded, dismissing the nurse and turning to Tony, who looked as if one stiff breeze would send him straight into a rage.

“Look at me.” Tony's brown eyes snapped up to hers. “We are going to find him. Even if it takes us ten years and the use of Clint’s circus contacts, we are going to find him. There is not one place on this earth someone could hide him that we won't find. I refused for any of us to lose anymore family members. I'm not going through it again.” She narrowed her eyes. “Do you understand me?”

Tony nodded, eyes hardening in determination.

“Good. Now suit up.”

* * *

 

It took nine days.

Nine days of Tony's never ending neurosis with finding Steve. Nine days of Clint’s incessant cleaning of his weapons. Nine days of Bruce’s yoga music playing on a loop. Nine days of Thor’s thunder crackling ominously on the horizon.

Nine days to find Steve, shivering and wet from being thrown into the Hudson during an explosion.

“Are you shitting me?” Tony snarled, replusors hot. “Now AIM is working with two-bit sorcerers? Is nothing sacred anymore? Must science be tainted?”

“Nice to know where your concern lies,” Steve remarked dryly from where he was being fitted with a comm unit.

“Supersoldiers who sleepwalk themselves out of SHIELD AMA and into the enemy’s hands aren't allowed to be sassy.”

“I second that,” Clint piped in. “You would not believe the amount of moping we all had to deal wi--hey!”

“No stone-throwing in glass houses,” Natasha said, not even sounding out of breath as she judo-threw an AIM goon through a storefront.

“But it's okay to throw knives?!”

“Are you saying I should have thrown something else?”

“Chatter,” Steve interjected, cutting of Clint’s squawk of protest. “Iron--Tony. I need a ride. Where are you at?”

“On your six, Cap.” Nobody commented on his use of Tony's first name, but Natasha knew that she wasn't going to let it slide that easily. Steve was a stickler for code names, especially on the comms. For him to break his own rule meant something had happened while he was under. Something not so good.

Once Steve had joined the fight, it had wrapped up quickly. SHIELD was just finishing collecting the AIM agents when Natasha decided to bring up Steve’s slip.

Steve flushed bright red in embarrassment, causing a flare of amusement in her, before he began to tell her what had happened to him.  
Apparently, when that beam hit him, he hasn't gone fully unconscious. Somehow he had ended up in the head of an alternate universe version of himself. That Steve had just been rescued by his team after being a giant lizard controlled by the sorcerer that they had been fighting when their Steve went down.

Before being saved, though, the other Steve had almost killed that universe’s Iron Man, and was suffering through nightmares as a result.

“The real problem,” Steve admitted hesitantly, like he was spilling a dark secret, “isn't that. Well, it is, which is why I'm so upset. But what made it so bad was the fact that that Steve didn't know who was in the suit.” He gave Natasha a haunted look. “He didn't know. And I couldn't stand the idea that he didn't know the real Tony. With how I saw his memories, it was like it was me. And I had almost--” He hunched over, dry heaving once.

Natasha could sympathize. Tony was, surprisingly, the glue of their family. He had given them a home, food to eat, clothes to wear; a place to be themselves without asking for anything in return. And in response, they had let themselves become trapped in his charismatic pull. Five warrior planets circling their sun, ready to defend him at any point.

“It's okay, Steve,” Natasha said, giving him a tiny smile. She gestured to where Tony was tearing a new one into some SHIELD techs who almost caused another explosion not handling some chemicals correctly. “He's alive and we're here to keep it that way.” Something urged her to continue. “You're here to keep it that way.”

Some of the tension left Steve’s shoulders at that, and he nodded. “I am. I won't let anything happen to him.” With that, he straightened up and walked over to the genius, smoothly maneuvering him away from the SHIELD techs who were beginning to look terrified.

Something about his statement niggled at her, and watching as Steve took on the full force of Tony's frustration with a soft look made something click.

She opened a private line. “Clint, you still have those Cupid arrows? We've got a mission.”

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Weight of Armor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9541895) by [vorkosigan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vorkosigan/pseuds/vorkosigan)




End file.
